One Week Down!

So I have now taught almost an entire week with my students and let me tell you a few things. I have loved meeting each one of them, they are all so adorable and fun. I am already getting to know their personalities and seeing the ones that will be my biggest challenges as far as behavior goes. I also have a few that I am very pleased seem to understand some of what I say and they kind of lead the class in a response. Although some of them still are tuning me out completely, it is encouraging to have a few who follow along. Think about if your in a foreign place and you don't know the language, you typically just tune it out, which is what most of my students are doing right now, but with repetition and consistent routines I know they will absorb quickly and get what I mean. Until then I am learning a few Thai phrases like good, bad, and listen to the teacher, just to help me get by! I took pictures of each student for attendance and if you want to see those you need to add me on facebook, where it is much easier to add a lot of pictures. Until then I have a few favorite pictures I choose to share.







Although the week has been hectic with getting my classroom ready and getting the students into a routine it has been good. I have been laminating like crazy, (laminating sheets are like gold here and you could seriously barter with the other teachers for them because they are so hard to get.) I have also been doing a lot of lesson planning, which always starts out a little rough, but now that I have my schedule made up it shouldn't be too difficult.
So I decided to make a list of some things that I either like of dislike about Thailand, I think it will be fun for me to look back on in a few months when I don't even remember these things as being odd or amazing because I am used to them.

Amazing things:
-Fresh fruit is for sale on the street and cut up for you for about 30 cents and it lasts me at least 3 meals. (the pineapple and watermelon are the best.
-The people here at the school are so willing to help in everything!
-How much teachers are revered here, and the fluent in speaking English thing just adds to it.
-Holding and playing with babies at the orphanage.
-The garlic chicken I eat at least 3 times a week at Sam Bahts (It's a little restaurant about a 5 minute walk from the school, it costs about a dollar for a plate full of goodness!)
-Sticky rice with mangoes
-My co-teachers are all pretty fabulous and we all have a good time in the staff room working together or just hanging out in the evenings.
-The church I attended last week that I plan to regularly attend. It is like you leave Thailand and enter California because everyone speaks English and is there working for Chevron, (the oil company), and they love to take care of the poor GES teachers with barbecues and other fun stuff! (And there's a pool next to it that we pay very little to swim at after church!)
-The owners of the school who invite us over for ice cream and then we end up singing hymns...everyone here is amazed how I sing harmony and they ask if I learned in Choir, I of course give credit where credit is due to Sonnenberg Mennonite Church and the amazing voices that I have grown up listening too! (Choir helped also I'm sure).
-I love Kru Som, the Thai teacher who is in my classroom and who saves my sanity and will interpret what I say when the students just aren't getting it! She is also incredibly patient with the children and has been a good example to me in that way. I hope I can be a good example of Christ to her!
-The last thing I love the most is singing Bible songs with my students. They belt them out so loud and in English! Our class favorite are: "If your Happy and You Know It", "If I were a Butterfly", and "Jesus Loves Me." (I will have to record this sometime and post a video).







Things I don't really love:
-How everything gets dirty here so fast from your room to the bottom of your feet which are guaranteed to be black by the end of the day since you teach with your shoes off.
-Throwing toilet paper away in the trash, yuck!
-The rats that seem to love my roommate and I. We have caught 3 babies and 1 mamma rat in this stick trap you will see a lovely picture of. But I also have a mamma and a baby that visit my room at night :(
-The tiny ants that are everywhere, so I keep everything in the fridge to avoid loosing food.
-Cockroaches
-the bad smells when you walk anywhere, although they are fading for me.
-the heat! I almost sleep without air conditioning, but during the day, if your outside, your dripping in sweat!
-how students come in the door anywhere from 7:30 to 10 (School starts at 8:30!) (I'm so very American in my scheduled like thinking, but come on, its time to learn!)
-I don't really love being away from family and friends at home, but I have amazing friends who are quickly becoming my family and support system here.

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One final thing I love the most is that I know that people at home are praying for me, and that means so much to me! I feel your support and I know God has me here for a reason, and looking at my 12 students I know they are reason enough!